In this article we elaborate on the concept of mature care, in which reciprocity is crucial. Emphasizing reciprocity challenges other comprehensions where care is understood as a one-sided activity, with either the carer or the cared for considered the main source of knowledge and sole motivation for caring. We aim to demonstrate the concept of mature care’s advantages with regard to conceptualizing the practice of care, such as in nursing. First, we present and discuss the concept of mature care, then (...) we apply the concept to two real life cases taken from the field of acute psychiatry. In the first example we demonstrate how mature care can grasp tacit reciprocal aspects in caring. In the other, we elucidate a difficulty related to the concept, namely the lack of reciprocity and interaction that affects some relationships. (shrink)

For the successful achievement of evidence-based practice, clinicians, managers and purchasers need evidence on whether a particular intervention works and ways to judge the appropriateness of the outcome criteria and measures used. Guidance is needed on what outcome measure to use, especially within routine clinical care settings. Beginning with a re-clarification of the difference between a health status and an outcome measure, the paper presents an evaluative checklist for use by clinical audit and research staff to review outcome measures for (...) use in routine care settings. Central features include the user-centredness of the measure, its psychometric properties, feasibility of use and utility. The applicability of the checklist is illustrated for outcome measurement in diabetes and stroke care. A modified form of the checklist is proposed for use by the busy clinician as an aid to the critical review of research papers within the context of evidence-based practice and to aid health care practitioners' choice of which outcome measure(s) to use within routine clinical care. (shrink)